Operation Heathrow

Chapter 3: Spinning the Sun Disk

There technically are several races to world first, such as the first to clear a certain dungeon in a certain difficulty, or, when the latest expansion was released, the first to get to the new max level. However, to the eyes of so many MAA players, and certainly the countries whose governments even subsidize guilds for that purpose, the words race to world first conjure an image of one and only one thing: being the first guild to clear the newest raid in fatal mode.

On Saturday, Karine gets ready for a video interview with Breathalyzer News, the premier news site for the MAA community, three short days before the start of the race to world first. After formalities are exchanged...

"This week, there has been reports of bugs causing a variety of effects, some of which only affected certain players, but the Perseria dungeons have seen the brunt of these bugs thus far. Do you feel like the manufacturer has lost control over debugging?" the podcaster asks her.

"Personally, I'd say that part of it might have been the consequences of their choices in AI algorithms. So sometimes it might feel like the game world is evolving in reaction to the players' actions, well beyond what players traditionally think of" Karine opines about what she feels is responsible for stuff such as trash disappearing from the Perseria dungeons. "So sure, these AI algorithms need some work, but that's all I'm willing to say for now"

"At this point, there are some players who are about to leave the game, in part over this whack-a-mole of debugging, or who have done so already. How do you feel about your future as a MAA player?" the podcaster follows up with another question about the impact of these so-called bugs.

"I want to at least see this tier's race to world first through. Even if the Death Fiscalists don't win, at least I want to show that unsubsidized guilds can hold their own against the subsidized guilds!" Karine goes through a crescendo of voice tone. "After that, nothing is less certain about my future as a MAA player"

"How do you feel about the race to world first for this tier?"

"Even though I believe that player skill and team coordination trumps choice of spec, given that every spec has a baseline of utility, I believe there is a potential for us to cause a surprise and maybe lay claim to either of the top two spots"

"Speaking of the top two spots, which one of the so-called subsidized guilds would be more realistic for the Death Fiscalists to win over?"

"I'd probably say Donghua Networks because the past few years have hit the Chinese talent pool harder than the Danish one, and, at every tier, they feel like they are on the verge of being cut off by the authorities in Beijing if they perform poorly. Especially in a context of mounting Chinese government debt, since the Danish government tends to maintain funding while an RWF is underway"

The Danish government will subsidize national teams for virtually any game provided the game has a big enough player base, at least within Denmark, Karine can't help but think of how her big rival as a streamer has an advantage because the Death Fiscalists don't have any form of government support the way Kronborg (the Danish national team) or Donghua Networks (the Chinese one) have.

----------------------------

Once the interview with Breathalyzer News ends, Karine resumes playing with Francis, while crafting cosmetics with recipes from bonus bosses in hopes of funding (in an in-game sense) the consumables they need for the RWF.

"What about we auction off one slot for a run through the Sun Disk?" Francis suggests to the other guildies.

"If only the game allowed us to borrow money..." Ram sighs.

"That was scrapped during the testing stage of the xpac, because they found no way to implement a workable insolvency system that wouldn't penalize people who don't play regularly" Karine comments about the loans system that was originally supposed to be in the game for the 2.0 expansion, but also why it couldn't be in the game. "The next best thing would be to find suppliers who can take at least net ten payment terms, or, better still, net thirty"